I have a lot of ideas for how to improve cities immediately and move towards a goal of green, sustainable cities on a decolonized north america. I have many reasons for wanting to move in this direction - everything from needing cities that can survive climate change to desiring a physical environment that promotes active participation of the inhabitants in the locations civics.

There are a few things that characterize the cities i envision:

multi-level. Not just skyscrapers, but multiple "street" levels. This will produce an aesthetically different city than were used to seeing.

bright. The only place we've envisioned these types of cities is in dark cyberpunk sorts of worlds. I want sunlight and growing plants at all levels of the city.

accessible. Seriously, this includes everything from limiting the use of stairs to ensuring that there are sufficient safe bathrooms.

able to become self sufficient in emergencies, but keeping open trade with other cities.

free movement of people. People should be able to travel, both within a city and between them.

public transit and car alternatives. lots of rail, elevators, and sidewalks. Planning for bikes, skateboards, wheelchairs, and segways.

privacy. Populations will be dense, so we need to build with privacy in mind.

safety. People study how to build safe communities. We should listen to them.

integration. Race, class, culture. We can all learn from each other, and cities should be both diverse and integrated.

art. Things should be beautiful as well as functional.

contained. The cities should pull in and go up. Thats how we physically decolonize.

Posted via m.livejournal.com. edited for spelling and added formatting for ease of reading

*car-free. Make it all electric-powered public transit, roads for bikes, skateboards, seqways and electric golf-carts, and wheelchair-accessible pedestrian walkways and slidewalks. Make it much easier to live without a car than with one.

*sunlight and growing food plants at every level of the city. Consider all the city parks already in existence, full of carefully-tended ornamental plants: what if all those bushes made edible berries, and all the trees bore fruit or nuts, and all the herbaceous borders were culinary herbs? What if all the ornamental indoor plants in the city were changed for pots of climbing beans and hanging tomatoes and such? Then put a glassed-over garden on every rooftop, and a container-garden in every sunny corner, so that the city can be self-sufficient in emergencies.

* eco-efficient, not-fossil-fueled. I see no reason why there couldn't be little windmills on or built into every rooftop, inside suitable screening to keep birds from flying into them. Good insulation and passive-solar design plus wind power ought to make most cities energy-independent. Wind power naturally goes with the building up, too. Plus, if global warming is going to bring us all these hellacious storms, we ought to get some good of them at least: the wind is one resource that is never going to run out.